IM AIO Bubble Baffle for Tunze Optic Eye

[tom39]

I am in the process of setting up an IM 40g Fusion for a frag tank. One of the issues that I ran into was that my Tunze 3155 ATO would consistently fail and overfill my tank to the point that the overfill float sensor would shut off the pump and set the overfill alarm.

 

After a bit of searching a few different forums and websites I have come to find that my problem was that air bubbles were collecting on or around the the optic eye. With a better understanding for the reason for the failure, I then better understood at least one of the reasons why Tunze makes the 3152 model, which is the ATO without the optic eye. In an IM AIO tank, the only place you can place the sensor for the ATO is the return section, the return section will almost always have bubbles that will collect in the chamber. These bubbles will eventually collect at the eye which will disrupt its ability to determine water level.

 

Anyway, because I just bought 2 Tunze 3155's (1 for use and one for backup) I didn't want to have to buy 2 more 3152's, so I came up with a solution to my issue. I made a bubble diffuser or baffle around my ATO sensors that fits right inside the return chamber and keeps bubbles entering the chamber to float to the top of the water but outside of the diffuser. 

 

Thank you for looking,

Tom

 

[tom39]

Here's a picture of it installed. Its hard to see but if you look closely, you can see how the water still enters the chamber without restriction but does so only on the outside of the chamber.
Another benefit is how calm the water level is inside of the chamber. This should allow for a more accurate water level reading.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

Edited January 28, 2020 by tom39
grammar & Punctuation